Filth – Film Review

Filth is a controversial film – due to the fact that the slang word for the police is ‘pig’ and from the outset the film’s image sets up the story of one policeman’s journey, mainly of destruction.

From the opening scene we meet the main character that the film is based around Detective Bruce Robinson [James McAvoy], who is a rather unkempt, smoking, snorting and generally dirty looking man.

Right from the start you are bombarded with scenes of dirty filthy sex, which escalates into drug taking by blackmailing with threats of arrest from the local drug dealers.

Blackmail extends to having sex with borderline minors to lonely and desperate housewife’s, which are his colleagues he’s trying to out do in the race to get the promoted job at his police station.

You are left in shock and while laughing you’re thinking ‘Am I really witnessing this extreme story’ and another more worrying thought, ‘This has probably happened’ amongst police officers worldwide.

There are very funny scenes one in particular concerns a Christmas party that gets drunkenly silly but hilarious as it includes a photocopier machine taking the best or biggest penis photocopy picture and the winner is unexpectedly rewarded with a fellow female colleague called Size Queen [Polly McIntosh]. Let’s just say it isn’t all cracked-up to be!

You get beyond the middle of the film and waiting for some more outrageous shenanigans, but instead you get to the root cause of this outlandish behaviour and the consequences of this destructive lifestyle.

You get some rather psychedelic scenes of people with animal masks on that keeps you wondering what the relation to these characters and inner thoughts of Detective Bruce Robinson are, as he sits in his psychiatrists Doctor Rossi’s [ Jim Broadbent] room for his periodic anti-psychotic drug treatment. Though they are his demonic thoughts and fears concerning a family tragedy sometime ago.

The hopes of his job promotion slowly slips due to him being investigated and despised by Detective Superintendent Amanda Drummond [Imogen Poots] trying to undermine and cause complete havoc amongst his fellow police officers.

Having tried to do a good deed that didn’t go to plan Detective Bruce Robinson now demoted to Constable is left feeling rather low, which ends in just a shocking twist as he lived!